


not the kind of drum you play one time

by maddielle



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fantasizing, Flirting, Implied Sexual Content, Kissing, M/M, Reminiscing, Wine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:21:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27337090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maddielle/pseuds/maddielle
Summary: Nicky, Joe, a bottle of wine, and some musings on a summer evening.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 18
Kudos: 185





	not the kind of drum you play one time

**Author's Note:**

> Title: One Time - Marian Hill

Nicky’s been out on the balcony by himself for a while when Joe gets home.

They’ve been in Montréal for about a week, waiting on Andy and Nile to join them, renting a townhouse in an older part of the city where rickety staircases and creaking floors are commonplace. It’s a hot August, though not as hot as they’ve survived before, and sticky. It makes Nicky think of the Mediterranean. It makes him feel nostalgic.

Joe took a bike out a few hours before in search of markets and shops, and Nicky’s been sitting with an uncorked bottle of wine next to him since the sun set. He has a nice view of the narrow street from up on the third floor, and watches lazily as his lover peddles up the road in the rosy haze of the late evening.

Content to wait, and only a little tipsy, he leans his head back on the wall and closes his eyes, listening as Joe lets himself into the apartment and makes noise in the kitchen for a while. He must doze off. He wakes when the screen door to the balcony gently swings open.

“I see you’ve started without me,” Joe says, amused. He sits on Nicky’s other side and sets a small bowl down, freshly-washed grapes within.

“I was thinking of Barcelona.”

“1847?”

“Mm.” Nicky sighs. “It was a lovely summer.”

It had been. Taking a handful of months for themselves, they’d spent most of their time naked and drunk, on wine and each other, in the privacy of a wonderful little apartment with a balcony similar to this one.

Joe reaches for a grape and settles back against the bricks.

“It was,” he agrees. “Pass me the wine? Before you enjoy it all yourself.”

Nicky snorts lightly and hands over the bottle. Joe downs a good amount of the cool drink. On the sidewalk below, some teens jostle and laugh with each other as they walk along the road.

“If we were young,” Nicky says, “and we met now, what do you think would happen?”

He rolls his head on his shoulders; Joe is already looking at him, eyes warm and considering and lovely. Nicky likes to play this game when he’s feeling thoughtful. He likes to imagine all the ways they could have come together in life, all the ways destiny could have intervened.

Even still, he believes steadfastly that there is no version of any universe where he and Joe are not as they are now.

Joe hums thoughtfully. “Now? In Montréal?”

Nicky nods.

Joe lets out a soft breath and weaves a small fantasy for them, as he’s done many times before. “I might be a professor. Classics, or perhaps art history. I could imagine you as a dancer. Young and beautiful. You studied for years.” He takes a long sip from the bottle, watches intently as Nicky does the same after. “Perhaps it was a fundraiser, or an event for opening night. I’ve always loved contemporary dance; I could be a patron.”

“I’d be tired after the performance,” Nicky murmurs. “But I’d see you.”

“And I’d see you.” The corner of Joe’s mouth curls up. “You know how I am, love. I would have to introduce myself.”

“I’d probably let you steal me away from my friends. Talk to me all night.”

“Of course.” Idle, Joe’s hand brushes Nicky’s knee and curls around the inside of his thigh like a promise. “I would feel such a connection with you.”

“Even if we were strangers?”

Solemn, Joe nods. “Even then. It would be impossible not to. I would absolutely have to ask to see you again.”

Nicky is sometimes so in love he wants to turn himself inside out. He takes in the humid August air and tilts his shoulders towards Joe.

“How would you know I was interested?” he asks, a touch impish. “Seems rather presumptuous.”

Joe’s eyes darken. His hand rests heavier on Nicky’s leg. “Your eyes. When you are wanting, Nico, I feel your gaze on my skin like you’re touching me with your own hands.”

“And if I said yes?” Nicky says quietly. “If I let you take me from the party? We might stop for a late-night drink. I’d be drawn to you like a magnet, wanting to be closer.” He lifts a hand, thumbs just under Joe’s lip. “Would you take me home?”

“I would want to,” Joe says roughly.

“Would you wait?”

“I would always wait for you. But, underneath, I would be desperate to take you to my bed and never let you leave.”

Nicky closes his eyes. He pictures himself and Joe as would-be strangers, nothing to connect them but some indescribable pull and a chance meeting, eyes catching across the dark bar, knees brushing.

He exhales, and wants. He opens his eyes.

“I think you should.”

Joe wastes no time capturing him in a claiming kiss, and the desire that spikes through Nicky’s gut has a helpless noise catching in his throat. Joe sits up and kisses him again, mouth open, hand pulling on Nicky’s thigh until he lifts up and settles across Joe’s hips. His hands land on the wall on either side of Joe’s head. Joe’s brush inside his t-shirt and tease along his hip bones.

“All these years,” Nicky groans, relishing the scratch of Joe’s teeth at his jaw. “You bring me to this with only your words.”

“A gift I will never relinquish,” Joe says teasingly, sucking under Nicky’s ear softly, mouthing at his earlobe.

Nicky gasps out a tiny laugh. “I am appalled you think I could be seduced so easily.”

“My darling.” Joe leans back and cradles Nicky’s head between his hands. “I don’t think there has ever been a time where we have _not_ easily been seduced by each other.” He grins. “With me, you can be as easy as you like.”

Nicky smiles and falls against him again, pressing his smile to Joe’s mouth.

The wine and grapes are eventually abandoned on the balcony until they return much later, dressed in nothing at all, shrouded by the thick summer night, trading kisses and made up stories and wine until the bottle empties and Nicky’s only thoughts are of the here and now.


End file.
